Nudity is often used as enticement at the fringe, but in this burlesque-musical-melodrama, nudity is the whole point. The curvy Vancouver Island chanteuse-ecdysiast Miss Rosie, whose voice is as ample as her hips, takes to the stage of a burlesque house to sing a few salacious songs ("If you don’t like my peaches, why do you shake my tree?") and peel a few items of clothing.

But she faces a dilemma. A complaint, probably lodged by a vengeful ex-husband, has brought the police to her show, and any undue display of skin might get her arrested, as well as close down the club in which she so expertly twirls her tassels.

Beneath the elaborate silky trappings, Rosie looks like a housewife-mom (and in fact she is), and the show has undeniable instructive value along the lines of How to Look Good Naked. Her political defence of "taking her clothes off in front of strangers" drops a downer in the aphrodisiac cocktail.

A film component in the show places nudie greats Bettie Page and Virginia "Ding Dong" Bell alongside images of Salem witch burnings, which may be overstating the case a tad.

— Randall King

From the official Fringe Festival program:

The audience awaits Rosie Bitts, burlesque star. They're here for her voice, for her costumes; they're here to see if she'll take off her clothes … so are the police. If she does, they'll shut the place down.

Using burlesque, comedy, drama and music, Rosie explores the politics of female nudity, pornography and erotica, and the fight against misunderstanding and censorship.

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